


Flame Test

by theparadoxic



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: AU, Angry Sex, Angst, Dubious Consent, M/M, Mild S&M, Sappy Ending, Sexual Tension, Unrequited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-19
Updated: 2014-02-19
Packaged: 2018-01-13 02:29:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1209412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theparadoxic/pseuds/theparadoxic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A simple research for an SMG video takes a turn as Gavin finds himself face-to-face with the man who nearly drove him to the brink of insanity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flame Test

**Author's Note:**

  * For [invertedrainbow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/invertedrainbow/gifts).



In two days, Gavin and Dan are going to finally film a frequently requested video from the fans – chemistry magic. An approximate of 180 messages later, they arrived at the decision to do something that involves minerals and a not-so-friendly fire. In all honesty, they would do it in a heartbeat if it wasn’t for the fact that neither of them actually has any remaining expertise or knowledge to work around a laboratory. Sure, burning minerals is pretty basic – what a lighter’s for, right? – but filming them and actually hoping for wonderful reactions on camera are an entirely different thing.

 

Which is how Gavin ended up meeting Ryan on a sunny Saturday afternoon, the older man waiting for him outside the building with a Diet Coke in hand. For a reason Gavin doesn’t wish to decipher, something about the way Ryan turns to him sends a pang of venom in his chest. Gavin feels his palms sweat – he hides his hands inside the pockets of his jeans despite knowing the fact that he has to shake Ryan’s hand in a few seconds. That man’s always been so professional, to the point that sometimes Gavin just wants to bash him in the head for it. It drives him insane how Ryan wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer, even on simple things as such. (What’s the point of shaking someone’s hand if you already know them anyway?) Gavin walks forward and distinctly feels the rubble against his shoes as Ryan smiles upon spotting his presence. Ryan looks just as alarmingly attractive as the last time, his gaze still full of so many diabolical thoughts Gavin knows not of, yet makes him want to discover still.

 

“Hi,” Ryan extends his free hand, the smile on his face momentarily blinds Gavin. “How are you?”

 

“Oh save it, Ryan.” Contrary to his earlier prediction, Gavin doesn’t actually take his sweaty hands out of his jeans. He smiles faintly and walks forward, gluing his vision to the tiled entrance of the building.

 

“Well,” Ryan follows suit, throwing his empty can on the trash bin nearby. “I mean, no need to brush me off, Gavin.”

 

That unpleasant feeling inside Gavin’s stomach starts to drive up his throat; there’s a familiar sensation that forces him to turn to Ryan with a smirk along his lips, “That doesn’t bother you now, does it? After everything.” He bashfully turns his back to Ryan and walks past the doors to the laboratory he’s been to so many times in the past. So many times that he’s almost certain he knows every corner of every shelf, every work ever done on all his workbenchs, and every gleam and stain on Ryan’s glassware. It isn’t until he turns back to Ryan that he realizes the older man is looking rather peculiarly at him. Gavin doesn’t bulge. He knows what Ryan’s mind is building up whenever he’s awfully silent. He brushes it off and fishes out some latex gloves by the workbench, puts on a coat and a pair of goggles, “Right. Shall we get started?”

 

There’s a slow sigh that escapes Ryan, “Sure, whatever.” He somehow senses an air of hostility emitting from Gavin, and Ryan is smart enough to know the reason why. He still walks over next to him though, silently, not too close to add salt to the wound, but not too far to give off the wrong impression. “Judging by the fact that you had to call me to conduct a flame test, I take it you’ve already forgotten how to do them?”

 

“Yeah, you dope. Why else would I call you?” For a lingering moment they look at each other in the eyes. Gavin feels an electric jolt – not the good kind – run through his veins upon meeting Ryan’s leer. Yes, Ryan is _leering_ at him. And it makes Gavin feel very uncomfortable. He shifts a little bit farther from the man. Never a good thing to stand next to someone only an arm’s length away from a flame source.

 

“Are you going to do this with me or not?” Ryan’s tone is slow, intimidating, condescending.

 

Gavin knows better than to infuriate him but he just has an uncontrollable itch to let his frustrations go. For whatever reason, he suddenly feels the need to lash out at Ryan. So he does. “Let’s do it, then. You’re the one holding a burner, not me. I’m the one who’s waiting here.”

 

Ryan flinches visibly, “You’re the one who called me at 7 o’clock in the morning. On a fucking Saturday. To teach you about basic flame testing, which we have done for at least 2 years before you left this place. And now you’re being rude to me?”

 

“Are you gonna do it or are we just going to fight this off?”

 

Ryan sighs the second time in the 20 minutes of being around Gavin, and finally, albeit with hesitation, starts a fire. He pulls a couple of raw specimens from his right and starts talking about electrons and ions, and how they all work together to determine the result that Gavin might deem useful for their video.

 

Gavin is barely listening to Ryan, however. Not even a little. His mind unconsciously wanders off into memories he does not wish to revisit – a ton of which involved the laboratory and the man beside him. It’s been a little over 4 years since he first realized he likes Ryan as more than just a supervisor. It was horrible, just a horrible experience that Gavin doesn’t want to relive even at the darkest depths of his subconscious.

 

Yet he does. Gavin relives everything despite himself, every memory of Ryan that he’s managed to keep; every brush of his calloused fingertips, every bounce of that stupid laughter, the friction of their coats every time they walk past each other. Everything replays in Gavin’s head in a vivid and haunting fashion, and it both pains him and makes him happy. It makes Gavin think how one can feel such a burning hatred and an absolute passion for one human being in the same lifetime.

 

Gavin has come to terms that he likes Ryan as more than just a supervisor. He knows it, he still does. Denial no longer exists as an option at that point of his life. He likes how Ryan takes care of him despite the distance they’ve built over the years. He likes the way Ryan makes him laugh on days he’s exhausted, and the way Ryan chooses to argue with him over the phone about the stupidest things. Ryan has proven to Gavin that it’s healthy to disagree, and to completely fall in love with someone who’s an exact opposite of who he is.

 

At the very same time, Gavin has come to terms that he absolutely hates Ryan – from the highest tip of his hair to the farthest meter radius his shadow could cast. Gavin despises every single thing imaginable about him. He loathes the way Ryan presents himself to people – all a beautiful balance of obnoxious ego and charm and humility and everything Gavin isn’t – and he loathes the way Ryan thinks nothing of him, borderline zero confidence on what Gavin is actually capable of doing if only given the chance to be alone with laboratory work. He hates the way Ryan belittles him when they argue (“Maybe if you get a PhD, I’ll believe you.”) and when Ryan ignores him for the rest of the week because of a fault in the experiments that he didn’t even need to take responsibility for. He hates the way he liked Ryan so much it ended up paining him, forcing him to distance himself from the man, and ultimately leaving the relationship they’ve somehow managed to build for a few years they’ve worked together.

 

All of a sudden there was a sharp thud on the workbench, “Are you even listening to me?” Ryan turns to Gavin’s direction, impatience written all over his face.

 

“What?”

 

“Your mind traveling in Dream Land again?” Ryan starts removing his gloves, followed by the goggles he was wearing. An audible sigh escapes his pursed lips before he turns to Gavin with an arched brow and continues, “I’m going to say this as nicely as I possibly can: _You’re wasting my time, Gavin._ You can either pay some fucking attention or you can leave, and let me enjoy what’s left of my weekend.”

 

There, exactly that reason why Gavin hates him. “I was listening, I was! How’d you know I wasn’t paying attention? You don’t. You jumping to conclusions again, Ryan?”

 

“Jumping to conclusions? The evidence is right in front of me! You weren’t paying attention—I’ve asked so many questions about which minerals you want to use for that stupid video of yours and all I’m getting is—”

 

“Well then, you can do it again!” Gavin’s voice goes up two more octaves. He himself did not see it coming. “And I already told you before I came here, I wanted to produce all possible colors—”

 

“How am I supposed to teach you if you can’t even look at me in the eyes?” For a moment the atmosphere falls dead. Completely dead. Ryan knows he hit the bull’s eye with that comment. He knows Gavin a little too well; he knows what the younger man’s been up to the entire time. He knows. Just because it’s Gavin. He takes in the fact that Gavin has no plans of retaliating – which is refreshing – so he presses forward, “Tell me, Gavin. Did you really forget how to do flame tests? Or were you just looking for an excuse to come back to this dainty laboratory you yourself abandoned a few years ago?”

 

Gavin finds himself gulping in anxiety. He removes the gloves and calms himself, “The problem with you, Ryan, is that you always assume you’re right—”

 

“Aren’t I?” Incredulous, Ryan thinks. “Surely if I weren’t, you wouldn’t consider me as an option for your little research.”

 

“You’ve always been a cocky bastard’s what you are.” Gavin feels his pulse speed up, knuckles almost white with tension. He looks at Ryan in the eyes for a brief few seconds and says in finality, “You’re still a bastard after all these years. I don’t need your help after all.”

 

Before Gavin could even head for the exit, he tumbles backwards. The next thing he knows, he’s backed against the workbench behind him. Ryan’s weight is pressed against him, rage quite evident on his face. His teeth are grit against each other, “Gavin, if this is about what happened—”

 

“You choose to bring this up? Now? After 4 bloody years?” Gavin tries to push him away, his efforts obviously futile. Ryan’s always been a lot stronger than he is, and Gavin is both admittedly turned on and discouraged by that fact, both at the same time. “Get off me, Ryan!”

 

“Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted, Gavin?” Ryan’s tone shifted into a malicious one. There’s an insatiable amount of anger and lust and sadness, and for a second Gavin’s unable to wrap his head around it all, but he’s as certain as he’s ever been that he can hear an implied apology beneath Ryan’s words. He hears a sincere apology resonating beneath Ryan’s, “You’ve wanted this for so many years, haven’t you?”

 

It’s all he hears for a few seconds until he feels a possessive pair of lips attacking his neck out of nowhere. Gavin’s eyes shut as a response to the pleasure but as soon as a pair of bear hands lifts him rather forcefully by the waist, he yelps a desperate, “No, wait!”

 

Ryan cuts him off easily by moving his lips to Gavin’s own, and good god, Gavin feels something rush down south just by that alone. He’s caught in-between wanting to push Ryan away and wanting to pull him as close as he possibly could.

 

“This is the reason why you came back, isn’t it?” Ryan hastily says when he gasps for air. He doesn’t wait for Gavin to respond however, as he dives right back in to the other’s mouth in half a second’s time, their tongues dancing to an indefinite rhythm. Gavin tastes like soda and fast food, Ryan infers, but it doesn’t matter because hearing Gavin muffle desperate cries of suffocation was enough to fuel Ryan’s fire. It was all enough to send Ryan’s blood into hyperdrive.

 

“Ryan, stop! Stop it!” Gavin finally manages to bellow when Ryan breaks off the kiss. Wrists forcefully pushing Ryan by the shoulders, Gavin turns his face away from him and starts to yell. Ryan, quick to counter, pushes Gavin’s chest with one hand; his other he uses to cover Gavin’s stubborn mouth.

 

The older man presses forward, the entirety of his weight almost crushing Gavin. And then with a low tone he whispers to Gavin’s ear, “This is why you came back, don’t fucking lie to me. You came back because you wanted to see me. None of that chemistry research bullshit.” Ryan isn’t going to give Gavin a chance to response, though. He’s over and done with all this passive-aggressive phase that Gavin’s been throwing at him for the past couple of years. And sure, Ryan definitely likes Gavin, but sometimes it’s in Ryan’s nature to just sit back and enjoy watching Gavin drive himself insane because of a stupid, petty crush. A crush that Ryan knows he’s more than okay with, but would rather choose as his upper hand than a weakness.

 

Gavin closes his eyes rather tightly when he feels a burn travel up his crotch. He reaches for Ryan’s arm hovering on his chest but all it gives him in return are stressed muscles. He tries to say something against Ryan’s palm, only to hear Ryan chuckle at him and whisper, “What was that, Gavin?” Gavin muffles out more incoherent cries. “What a coincidence, I want to play that game too.”

 

Ryan releases Gavin but quickly replaces the hand with his own mouth. He can hear Gavin still go, “no, please, don’t,” every time he momentarily gasps for air. But Ryan dismisses it. Instead, Ryan palms Gavin’s cock with his hand, feeling the man underneath him shake upon contact.

 

“See?” Ryan whispers, “See how you ache for me?” He kneads Gavin’s member through the jeans, erection obvious as day even through the thick material. A rather strong push sends Gavin a little further across the workbench, beakers and test tubes and all kinds of contained materials flying off the edge. Broken glass wouldn’t be fun to clean, Ryan thinks as he continues to assault Gavin with his mouth. “Isn’t this what you wanted all along, Gavin?” Gavin’s chest is heaving, his breath at a pace like he’s ran a marathon. He looks up to meet Ryan’s malign gaze down at him, and a trail of shivers races its way up and down Gavin’s spine.

 

Gavin shakes his head. He likes Ryan – he does – but he hates him, as well. And this entire fiasco is both an abhorrence and a fulfillment Gavin’s situated himself in, he himself isn’t sure if submitting to Ryan is doing his unrequited feelings more good than harm. It’s confusing yet amazing, and it’s driving him insane. Ryan’s always had the uncanny ability to make Gavin’s everything want to careen itself off the edge of a cliff. And it scares Gavin to no end.

 

“Are you ready, Gavin?” The smirk tattooed along Ryan’s lips undeniably scares Gavin. Ryan could see the fear beneath him – just how he likes it. He settles his face in the valley of the younger’s neck and sucks him harshly in an intermittent pattern. “If I knew you tasted this good, I should’ve done this to you a long time ago.”

 

Gavin muffles out a groan, “No, Ryan. Stop it.” He makes another effort to push the older man off of him, and for a second he thinks Ryan’s finally heard him. But as soon as that thought sinks into his system Ryan’s face leers down at him once more. Gavin feels himself freeze in panic.

 

“You don’t want to play this game?” The tone was flat, almost a little too flat. Frightening.

 

Gavin shakes his head. His Adam’s apple bobs visibly upon gulping down the lump he never realized was there.

 

Ryan smiles down at him. “Too bad. Looks like I’m going to have to apply more force, then.”

 

“No, no, I don’t—” He tries to sit up, only to be pushed back down by a strong hand around his neck. Gavin chokes for a few seconds before Ryan releases the grip. Gavin feels the warm temperature in the room cling onto his suddenly bare skin. “Ryan—”

 

“Either you let me strip you like this or I tie you down and I take your skin along with all your clothes. Your choice, Gavin.” Ryan doesn’t wait for an answer. He hurriedly slips all clothes off of Gavin’s body, his eyes landing on the younger’s hard cock in an instant. “Look at you, all excited for this little game we’re about to play.”

 

At that point Gavin couldn’t find any other words to say. Retaliation doesn’t seem like a good idea anymore when Ryan’s right there next to his hard member, the older man ridding himself of his own clothing. Gavin simply gulps. He looks away when Ryan is completely bare in front of him. Gavin’s pretty certain it’s both because he’s waited so long for this fantasy to come to life, and also because he isn’t willing to have sex with this man at such an unbecoming situation. Gavin’s always imagined having sex with Ryan in a way that doesn’t involve anger and frustration, and this is definitely the opposite of everything he’s ever wanted.

 

“Ryan, please.” He hears the squeak in his voice. The tiniest hint of a sob.

 

“Don’t worry,” Ryan smiles as he dips his fingers in one of the beakers full of oil. “This won’t hurt – for long.”

 

One finger makes Gavin sob at the intrusion.

 

Ryan laughs, “One finger, really? I’m sure you can take more than just that.”

 

He plays a little game with Gavin’s hole, pushing and pulling back his lubricated finger before saying, “You always like taking everything up the ass, don’t you? You little slut.” Two fingers and Gavin’s hands are desperately clinging on to the edge of the workbench; his face hides beneath his arms by the time Ryan inserts a third finger in him. Ryan’s smiling all to himself as he watches Gavin’s hole stretch out just for him. “Look at that. That’s what happens when you just stay still and admit you want this. I wish you were this obedient all the time, Gavin. Then we wouldn’t have any problems.”

 

Ryan withdraws his fingers after a few more pumps and immediately pulls him by the legs. He hovers above an awfully quiet and derailed Gavin, “Tell me this is what you’ve always wanted. I want to hear you say it.”

 

Gavin simply stares at him. He blinks. He opens his mouth but no sound comes out.

 

“Gavin.” Ryan’s tone has somehow lost its intimidation. He looks at Gavin and kisses him, slowly this time, and then he suddenly feels Gavin kissing him back. And that was all that Ryan needed for an answer; that was all Ryan needed to feel to enter Gavin. He swallows the screams that Gavin let out, and somebody’s lip bleeds at that point, too. The coppery taste revels in their exchange and Ryan continues to plow right into the younger man, one of his hands pushing Gavin’s leg open, giving him more room to enter him.

 

“Oh god,” Gavin gasps when their lips break apart. The feeling of being so full sends his head into a loop, his vision almost completely white. Yes, this is exactly what he imagined having sex with Ryan would be like. All the earlier conflicts aside, him feeling Ryan fill him to the brim, his balls hitting him at an amazing pace, is what Gavin’s always wanted to experience from him. “Yes, right there, Ryan. Right—there—”

 

Upon hearing those words, Ryan seems to have lost control. His pace quickens, the tightness of Gavin’s ass making him want to just rip him apart altogether until he cries. He hears all of Gavin’s muffled cries transform into a string of wanton moans, and just like that Ryan quickly searches to kiss Gavin on the lips once more. The younger one opens his mouth without any hesitation, and then Ryan moves to pepper kisses on his jaw, until he reaches Gavin’s earlobe and bites it, “Tell me what I want to hear.”

 

Gavin moans when Ryan hits a particular spot in him. He moans again and begins to frantically rub his aching member as Ryan gains even more speed, hitting that same spot over and over and over again. The heat transferring back and forth between both their sweaty bodies is so intense, both of them has somehow gone numb from it all.

 

In-between their panting Ryan manages to demand, “Say it, Gavin.”

 

“Take me—I want you to take all of me, Ryan.”

 

Ryan slams into Gavin particularly hard, his walls constricting against his dick. Ryan goes blind and he shivers for a solid 10 seconds, releasing his load into Gavin. His fingers dug especially hard against the younger’s sides—bruises in a few hours, no doubt.

 

The moment Gavin feels a hot string of liquid fill him up, his hand automatically picks up an unbelievable pace and he rides out an orgasm by himself, until he feels Ryan suck the head of his dick. Gavin almost chokes from the sensation, tears brimming his lids after he spilled all over Ryan’s face.

 

They give it a minute before Ryan collected his thoughts and looks up at Gavin. “You—you didn’t say it.” Ryan whispers.

 

Gavin doesn’t miss it. “I did. I did say it.” He sits up against his own will and looks at Ryan. A smile as he wipes away the mess on the older’s chin.

 

Ryan moves closer, his face nearly close enough to kiss Gavin again, “That’s not what I wanted to hear.”

 

“Then… what was it you wanted to hear?”

 

Ryan doesn’t respond however, he simply smiles a knowing smile.

 

If Gavin could read him well enough, he’d know exactly what Ryan’s implying.

 

And indeed, Gavin could.

 

Ryan continues to simply smile.

 

“You prick.” Gavin slaps him playfully.

 

“Shut up.” Ryan says as he leans in for another kiss.

 

There definitely is no better way of being told to shut up, Gavin thinks.


End file.
